[lbo-talk] Re: Walmart flak Andy Young joins the Gibson-Allen brigade

[Robert Naiman]

I totally agree with you (of course) that retail prices facing poor
people is a valid issue but for Andy Young to racialize this, given
his stature and credentials and role as Walmart PR guy is not a small
thing, not a small thing at all. To me it suggests not a gaffe, but a
deliberate strategy. To use racism for political advantage on behalf
of your corporate client who's paying you megabucks for the service
when your political stature is in large part due to opposition to
racism - that's pretty slimy. I think it's a reasonable guess that
this was not the first time Young did this -- this time he did it
openly, and got caught.


> Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 11:02:36 -0400
> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Walmart flak Andy Young joins the Gibson-Allen
>         brigade
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Message-ID: <77C461DD-14A7-43A2-9AA1-B94308804B53 at panix.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
>
>
> On Aug 18, 2006, at 10:04 AM, Robert Naiman wrote:
>
> > Nice apology. Sorry, I should have said, In _Atlanta_, the Jews, the
> > Koreans and the Arabs rip us off. Actually, I was just refering to my
> > neighborhood.
> >
> > Mel Gibson, George Allen, Andrew Young. Every other day, it seems,
> > another establishment bozo shoots himself with public racism. Is it a
> > sign of the end times? It's enough to make one look forward to waking
> > up in the morning. Who's next?
>
> Young's remarks were stupid, but they obscured a valid point - poor
> people pay small businesses enormous markups at retail, and Wal-Mart
> offers some relief from that. Of course, WMT's employment practices
> suck, but if you're a poor person, you might welcome some alternative
> to the petit bourgeois on the corner.
>
> Doug